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Mythical Match-Up High School Football Challenge

While getting ready for the Fall 2012 sports season by sitting on the beach in the Outer Banks I came up with a “challenge” for me and for teams that I have photographed in past seasons.

Since I was working on the sidelines I often wondered just what made the difference in rankings and why? So I devised this Mythical Football Challenge.

The teams in this challenge league(s) are comprised of high schools within the greater Washington DC Metropolitan Area.

What is Mythical Match-Up Challenge?

Mythical Match-Up is a fantasy high school football season of 7 games staged among teams that because of county, state or jurisdictional alignment will not meet in a regulation football season.

The surrounding counties in the states of Virginia and Maryland together with the District of Columbia comprise the Metro area and these “ranked” teams have little to no opportunity in-season to play one another. Public , private, and charter schools in the Metro DC area will be matched to play in Mythical Match-Up.

Games played against one another, best described as “Mythical Match-Ups”, determine the ultimate champion. Success is based on a point system that results from a team’s weekly scheduled regular season opponent game then match-up head to head to one of seven “mythical” opponents and their results for the same time period. Points are neither awarded nor “ranking” of teams are based on individual performance, or because of the lack of a team member.

The data (statistics) must be readily available through local news organizations and/or websites that cover high school football. This may be problematic depending of published sources – but we are going to give it a try.

The Match-Up results are being provided to Montgomery Community Media (MCM) through my blog on their public service website.

Why – a Mythical Match-Up?

Experts/columnists are constantly ranking teams by using past performance or in season win/loss records combined with player personnel with perhaps too much use of comparable performance data – to make ranking decisions. I wanted to change that metric – make it simpler.

In Mythical Match-Up the pre-season media rankings, so called talking heads, and high school football rating services have no bearing on match-up or team selections.

Who choses the teams for the Mythical Match-Up?

I chose the teams to compete upon consultation with friends; and because its who I would like to see Mythical Match-Up to play.

So I started this Mythical Match-Up of teams.

Who are the teams?

There are two leagues of teams, Metro Mythical and MoCo Mythical. There could be more but no need to go crazy here. Each league is made up of 7 teams and there is only one champion for each league – there will be no playoffs among the leagues. AS I pointed out before, public, private, charter schools and neighboring schools in the Metro DC area will be matched to play

The Leagues and Teams are as follows:

# Code Metro Mythical
1 WI Wise
2 OM Old Mill
3 WF Westfield
4 QO Quince Orchard
5 FC Friendship Collegiate
6 SB Stone Bridge
7 GC Good Counsel

# Code MoCo Mythical
1 QO Quince Orchard
2 SV Seneca Valley
3 WC Winston Churchil
4 BU Bullis Prep
5 GC Good Counsel
6 NW Northwest
7 SH Sherwood

Both Good Counsel and Quince Orchard are in both leagues because they are in Montgomery County and because I consider them as being two of the best teams in the Metro Area.

How are winners of the Mythical Match-Up determined?

To win a “mythical championship” each team in their league will use known team offensive and defensive metrics earned against a regular season opponent. These metric terms will be explained below.

Each Mythical Match-Up team will play 7 Mythical Match-Up games and their score will be devised by a formula that rewards for good team performance or punishes for defensive and or team miscues.

Mythical Match-Up Games

Each team in a Mythical Match-Up league plays one of the other seven over an eight-week period of time from August 25 through November 8th, 2012. There will be one bye week known as the NULL week – for purposes of collecting the metrics for a make up game should any regular season game be canceled for an unforeseen reason.

Mythical Scheduled Week of Play – the schedule for all Mythical Match-Ups follows:
Game Week 1 7-Sep
Game Week 2 14-Sep
Game Week 3 21-Sep
Game Week 4 28-Sep
Game Week 5 12-Oct
Game Week 6 19-Oct
Game Week 7 2-Nov
Null 1 5-Oct

Each teams regular season opponent during the weeks of the Mythical Match-Ups will determine the points awarded each week.

The Metro Schedule of 7 Games follows:

Metro - Match-Up Challenge Schedule - Fall 2012

The Montgomery County (MoCo) Schedule of 7 Games follows:

MoCo Match-Up Schedule - Fall 2012

Scoring Rules

Match – Up Opponent – is the mythical league opponent. For example Stone Bridge versus Quince Orchard – is a Mythical Match-Up in the Metro League. Bullis versus Good Counsel is a Mythical Match-Up in the Montgomery County “MoCo” League.
Regular season Opponent – is the county/private/city league opponent(s) scheduled during the week of a Mythical Match-Up. For instance Quince Orchard plays Clarksburg on October 19th which is Week 6 of the Mythical Match-Up.

The rules are

1. Head to head Mythical Match-Up game across a 7 game season
2. Team with best overall Mythical Match-Up record is champion
3. Factors used to determine mythical points are
a. Total Offensive Yards as defined by total run, pass and return yards
b. Total Points by Opponent as determined by the points a Match-Up team allows their regular season opponent to score in a single game.
c. Total Break Downs as defined as lost opportunities that are a combination of fumbles made, passes intercepted and punts blocked by the regular season opponent.

Mythical Point Formula for Head to Head Play
The formula for determining mythical points (MP) is the sum of
1. Total Offense Yards (TY) divided by Points by Opponents (PO) less all Break Downs.
2. Each team will be awarded 1 point for a regular season win and will lose a point for a loss, know as the Game Outcome.
3. Under/Over – a point will be awarded to a Match-Up team if they score more Mythical Points than their actual game week offensive score.
4. In case of a tie – the overall MP will determine a head to head winner
5. If at the end of the Mythical Match-Up season two or more teams have similar win-loss records then cumulative win points will be awarded for their end of season record. For instance – Churchill has a 12-2 season record and is tied for the Mythical title with Bullis who had a 10-3 season. Chuchill would win with 10 cumulative season points versus only 7 for Bullis.

Determining the Challenge Champion

Best end of season record in Mythical Match-Up play determines the champion.

Awards

The champion will be awarded a plaque provided I can convince Montgomery Community Media to donate towards this simple, fun award. The award will be warded to the MoCo challenge champion.